Clinical Law Prof Blog

Externships 11: Final Reflections and Gratitude

We gathered for Externships 11 last weekend, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 7 and 8, 2022, at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. The externships community has met for these vital conferences every other year since Externships 1, but this was the first in-person conference for four and half years. It was the first major, in-person, clinical conference in three years. As teachers, we know the deep value of intentional reflection, sharing, exchanging, and engaging in person, so the time together was inspiring, rejuvenating, and full of joy in the work. 

Representing well over one hundred law schools, one hundred and eight professors and administrators gathered in person, and another fifty joined us online. Professors from Australia and a large delegation from law schools in the Philippines joined the conference to share, learn, and further develop their programs. 

The substance of the conference was critical and important. Our high calling in externships is the formation of excellent, ethical lawyers and public citizens, so the plenary and concurrent sessions addressed practice, pedagogy, and professional formation. Several sessions specifically focused on implementing the new Section 303 standards from the ABA on cultural competence, bias, and racism. Experienced professors led sessions for new clinicians, and multiple professors presented scholarly works in progress for comment and critique. 

The experience of the conference together was beautiful, a long awaited return for a rich, dedicated community. True to the values of externships and clinics, the conference raised $1200 for donations to Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County and Bet Tzedek, to support the field supervisors who support our students in critical public interest placements. 

Personally, I am profoundly grateful for the collaboration, creativity, and hard work from the organizing committee and an all-hands effort from our teams at Pepperdine. These were good days that will make us better teachers, mentors, lawyers, and colleagues. 

California Legal History Journal on Legal Clinics and Experiential Learning

California Legal History, the Journal of the California Supreme Court Historical Society, and its editor, Selma Moidel Smith, have devoted its Volume 17 to the history of experiential learning and clinical legal education in California. 

Smith writes about a report she presented in 1948, shortly after she joined the bar: 

I made the case for the public benefit to be gained from well-prepared new lawyers at a time when “the vast majority of them have not seen the inside of a courtroom, have never prepared pleadings, have never seen many of the legal documents they pretend to know how to draw, and know absolutely nothing about the orderly presentation of a case.” I urged that the law student should have “as many opportunities as possible to deal with a live flesh-and-blood client. He should learn how to get the facts, how to gain the confidence of his client, and how to recognize when his client is withholding the facts.”

She devotes this, her final issue at the age of 103, to the future of legal education and the profession in California, with a celebration of clinics in California law schools. The volume includes articles from clinical law professors about their clinics, practices and pedagogies: 

Jeffrey R. Baker, THE COMMUNITY JUSTICE CLINIC: Pepperdine Caruso School of Law,

Lara Bazelon, RACIAL JUSTICE CLINIC: University of San Francisco School of Law,

Kurt Eggert, ELDER LAW CLINIC: Chapman University Fowler School of Law Alona Cortese Elder Law Center,

Haley Fagan & Tori Porell, FOSTER EDUCATION PROGRAM: UC Berkeley School of Law,

Carrie Hempel & Robert Solomon, COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CLINIC: UC Irvine School of Law,

Joseph Kaatz, ENERGY LAW AND POLICY CLINIC: University of San Diego School of Law,

Robert D. Mullaney, AOKI WATER JUSTICE CLINIC: UC Davis School of Law,

Art Neill, NEW MEDIA RIGHTS’ INTERNET & MEDIA LAW CLINIC: California Western School of Law,

Clare Pastore, ACCESS TO JUSTICE PR ACTICUM: University of Southern California Gould School of Law,

Ascanio Piomelli, COMMUNITY GROUP ADVOCACY AND SOCIAL LAWYERING CLINC, UC Hastings College of the Law,

Hina B. Shah, WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS CLINIC: Golden Gate University School of Law,

Lauren van Schilfgaarde & Patricia Sekaquaptewa, TRIBAL LEGAL DEVELOPMENT CLINIC: UCLA School of Law.